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Tonight we heard two readings — one from the Old Testament and one from the New — and both remind us of the same profound truth.
The first is from Daniel chapter 12, written about a man who, in the 5th century BC, found himself in captivity in Babylon, in modern-day Iraq. Daniel was a member of the artisanal class that had been deported from Israel to a territory where they were oppressed. Yet in his confinement, he encountered God's grace and mercy.
He had been reading a letter written by the prophet Jeremiah, which explained that the people of Israel would be held captive in Babylon for seventy years and then released. When Daniel counted up the time and realised it must be drawing near, he began to pray that God would protect his people and raise up deliverance so they could be free.
What Daniel received in return was God's answer to those prayers. God said, in effect, "The minute you started praying, I dispatched an answer for you." And Daniel goes on to tell us that when lives come to their end, there are two destinations:
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who lead many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever and ever.
Hundreds of years later, the Apostle Paul, coming toward the end of his life, wrote almost the same thing to the church in Philippi. You have a choice about how you live, he says — and if you live for Christ, you will shine like a star in the universe in a crooked and perverse generation.
Both writers, both passages of Scripture, remind us of the beauty and the power of a transformed life. When your life is transformed by God's grace and mercy, it doesn't only impact you. It impacts everybody around you — your family, your friends, your neighbours, your colleagues.
The graduates here tonight have studied because they have discovered the grace of God. They have been transformed by the power of the gospel. They've given their Tuesday nights, their Monday nights — in some cases whole days — to studying God's Word, because they have been met by the One who can change a person more than anything else.
Some of you who are family or friends might wonder whether their time could have been better spent. My own family said the same to me many years ago. I was studying for a law degree when God called me to plant churches. I was the first person in my family to become a Christian, and my parents, brothers, and sister thought I was throwing my life away.
But I knew then, and I know now, that I was doing the right thing — because I wanted to give my life to something that would last. There is nothing wrong with being a lawyer; many in our church are godly and called by God to do exactly that. But I knew God wanted me to study theology, to preach and teach, to impact nations through the ministry entrusted to me.
These graduates are pursuing more than study. They are pursuing God's call on their lives. They want to make a difference in the world. They want to shine like stars in the universe, in a crooked and perverse generation.
To the graduates: well done. Honestly, genuinely, well done. I know the sense of satisfaction that comes with graduating. And I also know that when the spark of learning is ignited in your heart, you must not put it out. If you want to learn more, think about another year. Think about studying further.
Your Bible is not there to stay on the shelf — it is there to come alive in your hand, to guide you into making a difference in the world.
Studying the Bible makes you realise how little of it you truly understand:
There is no more sublime subject on planet earth than thinking about God — His goodness, His grace, His mercy. It broadens your imagination, deepens your heart, makes you grateful, and fills you full of hope.
But tonight's sermon is not entitled "Why to Attend Bible College." It is entitled The Power of a Transformed Life. You can study as much as you want, but unless it touches your heart, your head will simply get puffed up.
Why do both Daniel and Paul use the image of shining like stars in the universe? Let me offer you a few ideas.
Before modern technology, the stars were compasses. They guided people to safety. Sailors relied on them to travel from one place to another; travellers crossed the deserts of the Middle East by night following the stars. Even the wise men followed a star to find Jesus.
Our generation needs a better compass, because the compasses we have are not working. They are guiding us toward self-destruction — stripping human life of its dignity, value, and worth, classifying people by how much money they make, the colour of their skin, or their gender, and peddling cheap and unworkable ideas that destroy human souls.
But God says that when you come into contact with Him and live for Him, you shine like a star, and your life guides people. All of our lives are guiding people somewhere. My question is not, are you guiding? My question is, what are you guiding toward?
Does your life shout that money will make you happy — only for people to discover that it doesn't? That sex will make you happy? That career will satisfy? Or does your life shine with a hope that will outlast you?
What remains of the empire that held Daniel captive? Nothing but relics and museum pieces. What is left of the Roman Empire? A few roads, some ideas set into statute — and a load of ruins. What is left of the British Empire? Empires rise and empires fall. But when your life comes into contact with Jesus Christ and you live for His glory, you will shine like a star and guide people home.
Stars shine hope into the midst of despair. When lives are surrounded by uncertainty, fear, death, grief, suffering, and the unexplained, there is something powerful about going out and looking up.
We have a house on the coast in Ireland, and I often stand on the terrace and look at the stars in that dark sky, and it fills me with hope. A star shining says that despair does not get the last word. A star shining says that fear does not need to get the last word. And when your life shines like a star, you shine hope into a world full of despair — not hope generated in you, but hope generated in Jesus Christ.
The writer Robert Louis Stevenson, as a little boy in Scotland, would go to his window at night. His nanny would say, "Robert, come away from the window." And he would cling on and refuse. When she finally asked him why, he said, "Because I'm watching the man punch holes in the darkness." He was watching the lamplighter walk along the street lighting the gas lamps one after another.
I want my life to punch holes in the darkness.
I want my words and actions to be words and actions of hope. I want people to look at me and see Jesus — to realise that death and fear and despair are not the last word. And I want the people I pastor to shine as educators, doctors, lawyers, nurses, factory workers — wherever they are.
We can also shine like a cry — a cry of defiance that says no more. A cry of longing that says there is a better way of being human than this.
We have more money, more information, more travel, more free time, and better health than human beings have ever had. And yet we are less happy and less content than ever before. Mental health struggles are on the rise at an alarming rate. Education is failing, with people falling out of it left, right, and centre.
The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was quoted by Robert Kennedy in a speech to black students in Cape Town during apartheid:
Some people look at the world and with an angry voice shout, "Why?" Others dream of how the world could be, and they shout, "Why not?"
Christians are why not people. We do not just shout at the world; we offer a better alternative. As Proverbs 31:8 says:
Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.
Maybe your life can be a cry into the culture of this nation and of Europe, saying, we have to change the way we do things.
Finally, a star can be a call — a call home. When the first astronauts went to the moon in 1969, they said all the stars were beautiful and fascinating, but the blue dot on the horizon, millions of miles away, was home.
We are a displaced people. We live with restlessness in our bones. There is something in every human being searching for home — for a place of safety, belonging, and peace, where we can live as God intended.
I pray you will look at these graduates and see people who have given up time, energy, and money to live a transformed life. But I also pray you will understand that your life can be transformed too.
When I die, I want one simple sentence written on my headstone: He loved God. No accolades, no titles — just that here lies a man who loved God. In the end, everything else fades away, but that remains.
Daniel names two destinations: shining like a star in the universe, or everlasting darkness. When you die, you will be in one of those two camps. There is no third, no waiting room. You have one life — no dress rehearsal, no chance to come back and try again. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
You might think your life is worthless, valueless, purposeless. But Jesus Christ thinks differently. He values your life so much that He paid for it with His own blood. When He died on the cross, He died that you might have life, hope, and forgiveness — that you might know you have value and purpose. He died to transform your life. You cannot do it on your own, but when you surrender to Him, He takes a life and changes it.
When I was sixteen, not long after I became a follower of Jesus, I knelt in my bedroom and cried, and I said to God:
I am not worth very much. I have no connections, no influence, nothing. All I have is my heart. So I will give You my heart. Take my life and use it for Your glory. I will go wherever You want me to go. I will do whatever You want me to do. I will follow You all the days of my life, because I want to make a difference for You.
I grew up on a council estate in Northern Ireland, in a very poor context. God took that life, and here I am forty years later, still serving Him. I say this not to boast, but to encourage you. All the doors that have opened — conversations with prime ministers, presidents, and policy makers — came about because, as a sixteen-year-old boy, I said to Jesus, "Take my life and do what You want with it." I am not special. I am not perfect. But I am a person who wants to follow Jesus for the rest of my life.
So tonight I have three groups of people I want to speak to.
To those not yet following Jesus: Will you surrender to Him, that you might become a transformed person?
To those who love Jesus but have wandered away: You have been captivated by the wrong things for too long. Jesus is saying to you, "Will you look at Me again and let Me make you shine?"
To those serving Jesus faithfully: You know that God has placed His hand on you, and you know what He has called you to do. Tonight, He doesn't need your plan. He just needs your yes.
